New Citizen Cope – The Rainwater LP
The Rainwater LP, the new album from Citizen Cope is out digitally today ($3.99!). I’ve had a couple of spins through so far, and like what I’m hearing. This time around, Cope (Clarence Greenwood) focuses more on social justice, poverty, and world ills rather than matters of the heart – which is admirable in itself. But I do miss having a killer love song like “Sideways” or “More Than It Seems”, or the aching “D’Artagnan’s Theme”.
Some standouts for me so far: the reggae-soul infused “Off the Ground”, the funky bass line and accompanying synth-groove of “A Father’s Son”; and songs like “Keep Askin'”, “Lifeline” and “Healing Hands”, which showcase Cope’s forte – the laid back, no nonsense urban storyteller.
There’s definitely this type of formula building in Citizen Cope’s albums – but it’s a formula that works for him, and is unmistakably unique. Clarence Greenwood has a lot to say in his lyrics. There’s a lot about the world that bugs him, and he has a way of channeling his frustrations in a peaceful, subdued fusion of soul, R&B, and rock/pop sounds. But even with his laid back demeanor, you can still feel the passion, the power, and often the anger in his music. Citizen Cope has carved out his own niche in pop music, and The Rainwater LP is another solid collection of tunes to add to an already impressive discography.
Be sure to catch Citizen Cope live. As anyone who has seen him will attest, once you do, you’re hooked in.
- AOL Music is currently offering a full stream of the album.
- And even better, you can buy The Rainwater LP MP3 album for only $3.99 here on Amazon. Awesome price. Grab it while you can.
Super Bowl Sunday 2010 – Geaux Saints, Who Are You, hey it’s the theme song from CSI!
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! I’ve donned my Cafe du Monde t-shirt and am ready to cheer on the New Orleans Saints later this afternoon. I’ll be thrilled if they win, but something tells me Peyton and the his Colts are going to come out on top. I hope I’m wrong.
Of course, I’ll be paying close attention to the halftime entertainment, which this year comes in the form of The Who. Original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are joined by drummer (and Ringo’s son) Zak Starkey and bass player Pino Palladino. The spectacle and scale of Super Bowl Halftime is always interesting – and having some of my musical heroes involved the past few years – Bruce, Prince, Petty – has made it even more surreal. This year, a generation of younger people will collectively say: “Dude! These guys are doing the song from CSI!!”
You won’t be hearing “Eminence Front” today, but I have to say – it’s my favorite Who song. Enjoy yourselves today, don’t drink too much, yada yada yada…
Go Saints!
Ick’s Radio Daze: 99.5 – Denver’s The Mountain
Kathy B. is back for her second Radio Daze installment. Here’s her hour (plus) with The Mountain-ain-ain-ain! You can check out all of the Radio Daze pieces here.- Pete
Station: 99.5 FM KQMT
Format: Classic Rock
Type: Terrestrial (Denver, CO)
Slogan: “Ninety-nine five The Mountain, A Mountain of Classics”
Date / Time: Jan. 29th, 2010 / 12:16-1:10pm MST
Commercials: 8.5 minutes
Streaming Online? Yes (www.995themountain.com)
Hot Dude on Home Page of Web Site? Some rotating images in the upper left include Bono and the Police. I’d place all four of them in the 75th percentile of “attractive people.” But no traditional hot-looking guy.
Hot Chick? The closest thing is a Haitian relief video with Michelle Obama. Somehow I don’t think she’s on their home page as a token “hot chick.” (But yes, she is. And I’m straight.)
DJ: Mike Casey, then Robbie Knight
Favorite Song: Talking Heads — “Life During Wartime”
Least Favorite Song: I refuse to answer this on the grounds that I may incriminate myself. 🙂
Song List:
The Rolling Stones — “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
The Eagles — “Those Shoes”
The Tubes — “She’s a Beauty”
The Ramones — “Rock & Roll High School”
Talking Heads — “Life During Wartime”
Heart — “Even It Up”
Elvis Costello — “Pump It Up”
Led Zeppelin — “The Ocean”
Queen — “Somebody to Love”
Pink Floyd — “Time”
U2 & B.B. King — “When Love Comes to Town”Comments: I first started listening at 10:45 am, in the middle of their “Commercial-free from 9 to noon” block. As I was compiling the playlist, I realized that not only was it commercial-free, it was DJ-free as well, which made me wonder if it’s a nationally pre-programmed block that goes out to a bunch of different radio stations across the country. Granted, all of the songs were ones that most people older than 15 don’t need to have identified for them (and the more you’re over that age, the less you need them identified)*. But it made me wonder if I could pick a radio station at random from say, Duluth, look at their program list, and find the exact same block of songs in the same sequence.
So I decided to pick a different hour of programming, in the interest of fairness. At 12:16, after a five-minute block of commercials, they started their daily “Barrel of Monkeys” feature, in which listeners call in and request songs — the catch being that each song title needs to start with the last letter of the previous song title. Apparently they had ended with U2’s “New Year’s Day” the day before. The Ramones and Led Zeppelin songs were “Wild Cards” that they threw in because I guess they didn’t want too many songs beginning with the same letters so close together. Five more minutes of commercials and the “normal programming” started with Queen.
The previous hour had been cookie-cutter classic rock, so it was kind of nice to hear a few curves thrown during the request hour (it’s been a while since I heard the Tubes or a deep Eagles track). But it still kind of left me with a “meh” feeling. There wasn’t anything that I found extremely offensive, but neither was there something that made me smile just hearing it come on. It’s all kind of in that middle ground of “I don’t really like any of this all that much, but I don’t really hate it either.” On a scale of 1 to 5, everything comes in between 2.75 and 3.25.
*In case anybody’s interested, this is what was played in the hour and a half leading up to the “Barrel of Monkeys”:
Santana — “She’s Not There”
Foreigner — “Hot Blooded”
Steely Dan — “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”
The Pretenders — “I’ll Stand by You”
Genesis — “That’s All”
Jimi Hendrix — “Fire”
John Mellencamp — “Cherry Bomb”
The Police — “Spirits in the Material World”
Styx — “Fooling Yourself”
Eric Clapton — “Tears in Heaven”
Supertramp — “Bloody Well Right”
The Clash — “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
The Rolling Stones — “Beast of Burden”
The Allman Brothers — “Blue Sky”
Stevie Nicks — “Edge of Seventeen”
Talking Heads — “And She Was”
Billy Joel — “My Life”
Aerosmith — “Dream On”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — “Don’t Come Around Here No More”
The Cars — “Moving in Stereo”Leave The Window Open
Add Chuck Prophet to the “I Should Have Listened To By Now” List. I know very little about this man. I just know that I’ve heard his name over the years, and heard his music here and there. Given that the words “singer/songwriter” and “roots” are often associated with his name, you’d think I’d have explored his music by now.
But I haven’t.
Luckily, Sirius-XM’s The Loft – my most frequently listened to station of late (after Howard) – has been pushing some great new music my way. Today, after devouring the #4 Chile Relleno / cheese enchilada combo at Los Favoritos, I was on my way back to work when I heard this cool little nugget of coolness from Prophet.
It’s the closing song of his latest album, Let Freedom Ring!, and it resonated with me in a Tom Petty / Greg Brown sort of way. Cool tune.
In Appreciation of: Steve Earle and Del McCoury Band’s “Pilgrim”
I still have a bad taste in my mouth from this week’s Radio Daze piece, so I’ve been doing my best to reverse the damage with – ya know – real music. And it gets no more genuine than Steve Earle. I finally dug out this CD a couple of months ago after a few years of accidental hibernation. In 1998, Steve joined forces with bluegrass icons The Del McCoury Band to release The Mountain, a fantastic collection of bluegrass tunes that range from down & dirty songs about life in the mines, the Civil War and train ridin’, to the downright sublime.
The album wraps up with “Pilgrim”, which falls into the latter category: 5 minutes and 28 seconds of beauty, affirmation, and faith. The surrounding cast of characters in this tune ain’t too shabby either. Joining Steve on harmonies in this song: Emmylou Harris, Sam Bush, Kathy Chiavola, Tim O’Brien, Gillian Welch, and Dave Rawlings (who I just featured a couple weeks ago). On mandolin? Sam Bush. Dobro? Jerry Douglas.
Busy studio in Nashville that day. Anyhow, this is just a work of beauty. Not to mention the whole album is tremendous. So here…
Steve Earle & the Del McCoury Band – Pilgrim
Pick up The Mountain on Amazon.
Visit: Steve Earle on the web / Del McCoury Band on the web
Cover Art: Tony Fitzpatrick
Ick’s Radio Daze: Puttin’ on the Hitz – 101.5 JamZ
Every week I pick a radio station and listen in for an hour, documenting the experience – for better or worse – just for you.
It’s Ick’s Radio Daze. Click here to see all of the Radio Daze posts together.
Station: 101.5 (KZON)
Format: Top Hits
Type: Terrestrial (Phoenix, AZ)
Slogan: 101.5 JamZ
Date / Time: Jan. 25th, 2010 / 9-10pm MST
Commercials: 7 mins
Hot Chick on Home Page of Web Site? Yes. Beyonce. Britney. Mariah.
DJ: Sugabear
Favorite Song: I don’t even really care for the song, but “Empire State of Mind” beat out the hour of trash I just put myself through.
Least Favorite Song: “Whatcha Say” – Jason Derulo
Song List:
Young Money feat. Lloyd – “Bedrock”
Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”
Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
Orianthi – “According to You”
Lil Wayne – “Lollipop”
Britney Spears – “3”
Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce – “Telephone”
Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys – “Empire State of Mind”
Ke$ha – “Tik Tok”
New Boys feat. Ray J. – “Tie Me Down”
Drake – “Best I Ever Had”
David Guetta feat. Akon – “Sexy Chick”
Jay Sean feat. Lil Jon & Sean Paul – “Do You Remember”
T.I. – “Whatever You Like”Comments:
I’m getting old.
Good Lord thank God that’s over. To think this station used to mean something to me. I mentioned a few weeks back that KZON used to be AAA, and it helped introduce me to Steve Earle and Bruce Cockburn, among many others. Well that format went kaput in the mid to late 90’s, and I’m not even sure how many format changes it’s gone through since. But in 2010, it’s a station owned by CBS Radio, locked (down) and loaded to bombard you with the hitz of day. Its demographic is the tween & teen market, something I haven’t been a part of for 20 years now.
When the very first lyrics I heard were: “You can call me Mr. Flintstone, I can make your bedrock”, I knew I was in for a long hour. Thanks Young Money.
One lasting impression from this hour: A-u-t-o-t-u-n-e. Holy modulation batman, does anyone in pop music not use autotune?? It was everywhere! For complete and utter Autotune Hell, listen to “Whatcha Say” by Jason Derulo. Really sad that autotune has turned into the rule instead of the exception. Blechh.
This was a very long hour for me, folks. Yeah, I’m showing my age. I’ll turn 40 this year. I’m the “old guy” now to the kids who listen to this station. But I cannot imagine coming of age listening to this stuff – formulaic to the extreme, lacking emotion, and any semblance of soul. The subject matter is unimaginative, simplistic, and completely vapid – and this is the music that kids will look back to 20 years from now with the same nostalgia I have looking back to Prince, Run-DMC, hell, even Samantha Fox and the like?
Granted, it could be a generational thing, but I honestly feel like something really bad – something irreversible – is happening in popular music. Painful. Just painful. I weep for pop music today.
Sunday’s Grammys should be a hoot. Yeahhh, I’ll be watching. *shakes head*
Hope for Haiti Now
Like many of you, I sat down and took in the two hours of xHope for Haiti Now last night – a music-based benefit organized by overall good guy George Clooney. It was broadcast on most TV and cable networks. This will shock you, but Fox News did not – I repeat, DID NOT – broadcast the show last night. That is completely surprising to – well – nobody.
Well, those Fox News watching fu–tards missed out on some pretty cool moments last night. If you could make it through the awkward celebrity phone conversations with the general public, you saw the likes of Bono, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Bono, Mary J. Blige, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young, Sting, Shakira, and of course the Boss (and many others).
All of the performances can be purchased on iTunes or Amazon.
Here’s a look at my favorite moments from the evening:
5. Bruce Springsteen – “We Shall Overcome”
This classic spiritual was covered by Bruce on his 2006 Seeger Sessions record. Last night, Bruce brought out his backup singers, along with Charles Giordano on accordion and Curt Ramm on trumpet.
4. Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris – “Hallelujah”
I was pleasantly surprised by this. As covers of this Leonard Cohen song go, Jeff Buckley’s stands firmly above the rest. But Justin and Matt last night were spot on with their harmonies, and brought out the true beauty in the song – which is more of a lover’s lament than a song about hope, strength, and inspiration (the general theme of the night). I was most impressed by Matt Morris’s vocals.
3. Shakira – “I’ll Stand By You”
This song is one of my favorite Pretenders tunes, and Shakira nailed it, in my opinion. Of course, my opinion may have been different if she looked like Tiny Tim, but visually and aurally, it was fantastic – especially with the Roots backing her up.
2. Sting w/ the Roots – “Driven to Tears”
What a great version this was. The full, lush arrangement – Sting on acoustic surrounded by the Roots. Questlove, drummer for the Roots, mentioned on Twitter that he was really looking forward to this performance because he’s practiced drums to the Police since he was a kid.
1. Wyclef Jean – “Rivers of Babylon” > Haitian traditional
I’m a big fan of “Rivers of Babylon”, a song written by the Melodians in 1972, and covered by many, including Steve Earle. But when Wyclef shifted gears and launched into the percussive blast of his native Haiti, it was like a load being lifted from our shoulders. He sang in English and his native creole, sang about strength in the face of adversity, sang even about Anderson Cooper and CNN. It was a perfect ending to the night.
Ick’s Radio Daze: Boulder’s KBCO
Welcome to the third installment of Ick’s Radio Daze. This time, we have a report from our first remote correspondent, Kathy B., who lives in the great state of Colorado. Kathy will be checking out a few of the local stations in the greater Denver area. If there’s anyone else out there who feels like geeking out on their local radio market and writing about it for this series, feel free to to shoot me an email. The more the merrier. It’d be especially cool to go international, and be able to explore radio throughout the world. So wherever you are, feel free.
This time around, Kathy zones in on Boulder’s KBCO – one of my favorites when I lived in Colorado…
Station: 97.3 FM KBCO
Format: AAA
Type: Terrestrial (Boulder, CO)
Slogan: “World Class Rock”
Date / Time: Jan. 16th, 2010 / 12:05-1:10pm MST
Commercials: 11 minutes or so (I stopped paying attention)
Hot Dude on Home Page of Web Site? There are some rotating pictures that include a couple of guys who may possibly be hot but it’s hard to tell from the photography. However, one of the rotating pictures has (I believe) Jack Johnson playing Studio C, and he definitely looks hot in that photo.
Hot Chick? Yes—Norah Jones.
DJ: Ginger (No last name; as far as I know, only one DJ on KBCO has a last name that’s used on the radio.) I’ve been listening to her for 20-something years, even following her to another radio station for several years (until they folded and she went back to KBCO).
Favorite Song: Marc Cohn – “Walking in Memphis”Least Favorite Song: Tie: Train – “Hey Soul Sister” (because it’s so annoying) and Robert Plant— “In the Mood” (which has always rubbed me the wrong way because it has something like a three-note range and requires no actual singing ability to sing. Not that I’m suggesting Robert Plant has no singing ability, just that he doesn’t need it to sing this song.)
Song List:
Van Morrison – “Tupelo Honey”
Natalie Merchant – “Jealousy”
Coldplay – “Life in Technicolor II”
Lenny Kravitz – “Fly Away”
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians – “Circle”
Foo Fighters – “Wheels”
Marc Cohn – “Walking in Memphis”
Neil Young – “Cinnamon Girl”
Snow Patrol – “Take Back the City”
Robert Plant – “In the Mood”
Modest Mouse – “Float On”
Counting Crows – “When I Dream of Michelangelo”
Moby – “Southside”
Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Down on the Corner”
Train – “Hey Soul Sister”Comments: The first thing I can think of is how “safe” this playlist seems compared to the KBCO of the late ‘80s to early ‘90s. No deep album cuts, no unknown local bands (although they did play The Fray in the hour following, and they’ve been playing them since that band actually was unknown). But since they were bought by Clear Channel, they haven’t been quite the same. A lot more repetition, for one thing. I have been hearing that stupid Train song every morning. I’ve also been hearing The Avett Brothers’ “I and Love and You” a lot, but that doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I was hoping it would come up during this hour so I could brag about the cool music this station still occasionally plays. (It came up about 15 minutes afterwards.)
KBCO fits into a niche in this market — I could listen to KTCL for some more obscure artists, but their music is a lot harder than I really like. Or I could listen to the lite rock and Top 40 stations for some softer music that gets played to death. Even with its faults, KBCO is still my favorite station in this market.
One of the things I like about them is the artists who play live in Studio C, who then get recorded for posterity, and if their record company says yes, put on a CD at the end of the year that thousands of people stand in line for hours in the bitter cold to buy. (I am one of those silly people.) I remember when the first Studio C CD came out, there were copies of it at the record store two weeks afterwards, and even when the 6th one came out, I was able to pretty easily pick up a copy later that week. But now the station promotes the CDs to death just before they come out, and they sell out within four hours and are put up on eBay immediately. Unfortunately, no Studio C tracks were played this hour.
Very male-centric playlist this afternoon, which surprises me from a station that introduced me to so many of my favorite female artists (Shawn Colvin, Rosanne Cash, Indigo Girls, Brandi Carlile, to name a few). Only two and a half women artists, if you count Gwen Stefani duetting with Moby. Although Edie Brickell’s New Bohemians were all men… And very little DJ chatter, which might also have increased the estrogen factor.
Courtney Jaye + Ben Bridwell
Where the voice of Ben Bridwell goeth, I shall follow.
And the boy has brains, apparently, because hubba bubba pow wow (sorry – that’s my reaction to the pic above). Ben (Band of Horses frontman) shows up on singer/songwriter Courtney Jaye‘s brand new record, The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye (out Jan 12). From the samples in iTunes, Courtney’s record sounds really promising – melodic, sunny, rootsy. And this duet with Ben leads the charge…
Courtney Jaye (w/ Ben Bridwell) – Sometimes Always (mp3)
Buy: The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye
Visit: Courtney Jaye’s MySpace
